37 comments:

When I first started my wiki, I didn't like it. I kept thinking that I just wanted to get it done and I would never use a wiki again. But, after I worked on it I enjoyed it. There are so many uses for it. Like for this class, our whole class is based around a wiki. Another class I am taking is also using a wiki for assingments and class information. You could use it in any context or job. I am currently making one for our church.

I also didn’t care for the wiki when I first started it. I loved the blog from the start because of its ease of use and simplicity. However, once I started working on the wiki I discovered that it really was easy to use. I also like the different pages and sub pages. It makes it very organized and efficient. Our church day care has a web site within the church web site, but I think using a wiki can expand upon it and really showcase the day care. We could even provide a hyperlink from the church site to a separate wiki for the day care. The current site is very generic with the basics but a wiki could break down each age group or class and give specific information and pictures related to each group. There could also be a separate staff page or have staff listed within each age group. There is also a calendar feature included in the wiki. I couldn’t get it to come up with my site so I’m wondering if it isn’t available for the free wiki, but curriculum could be added with a calendar. Even though a wiki looks intimidating at first, I think parents would find it easy to navigate once they got used to it. As for personal use, I can see how it would be useful for a classroom setting, especially in the older ages. In the younger groups, it would be more of a parent resource where spelling lists, homework assignments, and specific skills taught could be listed with class information. It could be a newsletter, class directory, and class information all rolled into one helpful site! I think it would be useful for home schooling when the girls are older and ready to work independently and at their own pace, kind of like this class!

wow Laura - you might end up knowing more about wikis than I do - I've not really explored all the "Plug-in" features yet, plus they keep creating more Plug-ins all the time. And you are right, there is a little learning curve, in which at first it doesn't seem so usable, then suddenly it all starts to come together; I really like it now, and am very pleased with myself with the class wiki, which I have show to some colleagues at IPFW who are very impressed.

The more I work with the wiki the more I like it! I would like to use a wiki for my Honors Science class instead of my school web page (which I found very difficult to keep up with). The wiki is so easy to use and add stuff to. I would also like to include links to volleyball, track, Science Olympiad, and Academic Super Bowl. It is so easy to add url's, which will help students as they research for academic competitions. I think my wiki will always be a "work in progress!"

The wiki seems like a great way to provide information and resources to the staff I work with. I like the basic layout. It seems easy to present current information or news in the main home page area, then provide links in the sidebar to lots of other information. I got the calendar to work. I found it worked best to create a new page, insert the calendar on it, then create a link in the sidebar to that page. It took several seconds to create the calendar, and several seconds to display it on a pretty quick internet connection. So if it seems not to be working for you, check to see if you waited long enough.

I really like the Wiki, more than the blog! It can serve so many functions and it much more flexible than the blog. I can totally see using a WIKI in my Health class. Especially the podcasting! If you had to miss a day, you could leave the subsitute the lesson plans via the podcast. Also, It lets your students be self-sufficient. (making up missed work)If you keep the wiki updated, you can refer them to the wiki. You won't have to find copies and review what the class discussed while they were out. I can't wait to get into a classroom to use this awesome tool!

A wiki seems like a perfect tool for those working remote. Especially if you need to provide progress reports, or share information with other members of a team. Although I’m not real clear about how well a wiki handles file sharing? But it seems perfect for educational purposes.

I felt a little frustrated at starting my wiki - I didn't know where to start or what to talk about. But after playing around with the tools and settings it all became rather easy afterwards. The hard part is maintaining it, adding to it. If you're not a teacher, or not tasked with a particular project things tend to bog down somewhat.

Still drawing on the writer's analogy, a wiki can be a powerful tool especially when collaborating on a topic - an autobiography/biography, historical, scientific analysis or treatise, a collection of short stories from different authors. Each is free to write, edit and upload their stories and perhaps a "centralized" author could take care of the editing and proofing. Once the materials are gathered it's off to the publisher for millions of readers to enjoy the book.

I think the wiki is also a great communication tool, and it seems it has more to offer than a blog does. It takes a little more time to get it going, but once you work with it, it seems to come together. I can a teacher posting their assignments on the wiki. This way the students could refer to the wiki if they forget what they were supposed to do that evening for homework. I can also see the teacher attaching links to helpful tools - places the students could go to review the lesson that was taught in class. Just this evening I was talking with a friend, and she would like to set up a website for the Suzuki school she teaches at. She talked about wanting a place where students could learn about the school. She wanted to put a picture of the school on it, some information about the school, a calendar of events, some links the students could visit, and she wanted a place where students and parents could communicate with the music teachers. I suggested she use a wiki, and I offered to help her get it up and running.

I am going to be teaching Art Experiences for Elementary Teachers this fall at IPFW. I have already started putting a link on my wiki for these students with some links to some good sites for integrating art into teaching elementary students.I don't think I would use a wiki much teaching elementary art.

Wikis are pretty cool, but not neat in appearance. I really don't like the tools always showing on the right side of the page, it drives me nuts! I've created several websites with chat rooms included and I don't believe there is a huge advantage using a wiki over a general website with chat rooms or blogs. The only real advantage I see is that is organizes information in a better manner to allow comments in each area. It may also help educators better than a blog aggregator. Not sure I'm sold on it yet though.

Wikis are an excellent way to convey to the students the material they will be covering in class. It can also be used to improve their understanding of new material by giving them additional resources such as websites or videos to watch that can supplement what is going on in the classroom. You can have the classroom policies and grading scales available for students to view at any time, and it would be an excellent resource for parents for many of the same reasons.

I agree with Bill's synopsis of Wiki use above. For the English classroom I would like to add specific Reusable Learning Objects for technology (Powerpoint, Movie Maker) and strategies for troubleshooting writing problems (e.g., IDEAS: too skimpy or too rambling; ORGANIZATION: maze-like, or weak lead, or transition trouble, or conclusion weakness; VOICE; WORD CHOICE; SENTENCE FLUENCY; CONVENTIONS; WRITER'S BLOCK.) I'd also like to see students use a wiki as a portfolio tool.

For Drama, a Wiki could be a fabulous project management tool for production coordination.

This would be a fun way to aid in teaching a class. Every classroom that I observed had 1-2 work stations for reading, writing, and math. You could develop wikis for a subject or tasks to be completed at that station. that way you could oversee it after school or without direct involvement. Or, if it was a group project the students could help each other out in completing the assignment.

I saw a Social Studies Wiki in one of your examples that had a table the teacher had created. The table was divided up into each chapter/unit and had all the assignments and directions in the Wiki. The teacher was teaching the class through the wiki and had everything the students needed for the class there. notes, asssignments, videos etc. I think this would be a neat way to teach a Social Studies class. Students would work independtly or in groups through the wiki. I could also see students working collaborately through one. Dividing a project up into parts and then each student put their information in the wiki. I am still a bit unsure about how to do this for 130 students though(20-30 per class)...its going to take some practice. I noticed under the wiki I created I could add writers or students accounts, but it only was allowing me a max of 10.

I have really enjoyed making my own wiki. I am a special education teacher, and I can see how all of the words and writing could be overwhelming to some of my students. I would need to find a way to simplify my page.

I think this would be a great tool to modify some of the textbooks. Instead of highlighting the important information in the book, I could type the information in a wiki. I would even be able to use a lower vocabulary level when reproducing the text.

I would like to make a class wiki that would consist of posting the students accpomplishments and postitive things they have done for others.

For inclusion I need to coplan with other teachers so I can make modificatins or learning tools. Meeting isn't always convenient. It would be so much easier to have the teachers post their topics and assignments. We would be able to communicate anytime, and we wouldn't have to have so many planned meeting times.

Writing assignments. For instance, the teacher could start a dialog that students will contribute their thoughts on the subject. They could also start a short story that each student would add to. PE students would post exercise and nutiritional ideas.

Group projects. Teacher could assign students to a group. Each group could then post ideas, research, etc. on the subject.

Teachers could also identify students who really did not understand the topic.

Team teaching between teachers to make sure that they would all cover the same material, etc.

I have already mentioned this, but I plan to use a wiki as my classroom webpage to keep parents informed on what is going on in the classroom. This will have a page about me to help parents feel comfortable with who their students are with all day. It will have a page that contains all of the newsletters so they can get to them online. It will also have a page of all of the beginning of the year information that I hand out (yearlong theme, writing rubric, homework system for the year, discipline system, etc.). It will have a page that will just be for web resources where parents and students may go to have them play games and practice their skills in math, language, etc. There will also be a link to the parent blog site.

Wow....I thought blogs were useful in the classroom...and then I learned to use a wiki!! I think wikis are WAY more useful and have a ton of potential learning outcomes.-For teachers to post handouts, lecture notes, pictures, websites, videos, class links, etc., etc.-For students to create their own wiki about a specific science topic (either as a group or on their own)-For parents to see what, where, and how their children are learning and to communicate with the teacher-For a school (or entire school corporation) to post information, gather feedback, and communicate with parents, staff, or students

Because I am new at all of this, I was impressed by the blog, but when I started the wiki, I couldn't stop. I continued to work on things that I know will be useful for next year. For instance, I found that because I have 3 different lessons plans, it was easy to make a link for each class so that they could have their own material, but that I could link material also that was beneficial to all classes. As a Spanish teacher, I can use it as a reference tool for parents and students alike. I plan to use it for the class syllabus with classroom procedures and expectations, reference pages since most of the students will not have parents at home to help them with the language, and also as a daily resource for students who are absent. I could keep a list of daily activities and assignments for the students who are absent to refer back to. I believe that it could help me to be better organized because it is all of the things that I already do but also will allow parents and administration to have immediate access to what is going on in the class.

I'm very enthused about beginning a wiki. My college teaching includes work with a institute of theoretical and practical learning, and we have been struggling with a way to post user-friendly and very accessible files for our users. Working with the web page and HTML code has been unsatisfactory. I think a wiki could be a solution to this problem.

Also, this will allow my colleagues and I to collaborate more efficiently on projects which we are working on together. The little video about "Wikis in plain English" demonstrated some of our frustrations with communicating via e-mail.

I also really enjoy the wiki and feel that it will be even more beneficial than the blog. I like the idea of having many ways for the students and their parents to stay connected and always have access to what is going on in the class. Where the blog may not be as detailed the wiki can be even more specific. As long as I keep eveything current on the wiki, I can potentially have my whole planning and all assignments on it and available for parents, other teachers and administration to see. Not only can my students and their parents have a chance to get to know me, but they will also be able to check their assignments if they are absent or forgot to write it down.

The ways that I think a wiki will be useful in the classroom:-as a way for my students and their parents to get to know me-as a tool for planning on my part-as a tool for the students to check what their assignments are (if they are absent or didn't write the assignment down in class)-as a sort of newsletter that tells all the happenings in our class and possibly the school in general

I could use a wiki to organize my entire class. The wiki would allow me to break my lectures apart, and organize my chapters into sections. With that said I teach pilots, and there are many difficult chapters that we must go through. One example is aerodynamics. The wiki would allow me to break these sections out to make it easier on my students.

I could use wiki for so many things. I was pretty new to it, but after working with it a little I really liked it. One way I would use it would be to post information about our employees and doctors. It is really neat to find something new about a co-worker or a boss that you didn't know before. It shows you what people have going on out of work and what they enjoy doing. People are always different out of work rather then at work.

I enjoyed using the wiki as something new and different. I'd only worked with designing web pages once and this was a very simple straight forward process. Unfortunately I'm not sure that I would use it in my classroom because so many of my kids don't have internet access and thus won't take the time to utilize the features that I put on. I will continue to play with it though and perhaps find a way to use it in the future. Sometimes I end up using the very things that I thought I would never use! :)

I might start off with a trial version for the beginning of the year just to see how many kids access it. I know that our textbook has an online version and I could post a link to it so that if kids forgot their math book at school they would still have an easy resource for doing their homework. Also, whether I use the blog or the wiki I have been planning on giving my students an answer key, just not the work. I might be able to use the Wiki to to do that. I could also post podcasts of particular lessons or links to someone else teaching the same concept. Sometimes that is enough to help kids. I think that the math department or the freshman team that I work with might also be able to use something like this as long as we could make it private. I'm not sure if we can do that or not though.

I might start off with a trial version for the beginning of the year just to see how many kids access it. I know that our textbook has an online version and I could post a link to it so that if kids forgot their math book at school they would still have an easy resource for doing their homework. Also, whether I use the blog or the wiki I have been planning on giving my students an answer key, just not the work. I might be able to use the Wiki to to do that. I could also post podcasts of particular lessons or links to someone else teaching the same concept. Sometimes that is enough to help kids. I think that the math department or the freshman team that I work with might also be able to use something like this as long as we could make it private. I'm not sure if we can do that or not though.

I have never used a wiki before but I think it would be good for a lot of things. I think it would be good for where i work to keep the family atmosphere by getting to know each other better. I can also see this as a training tool that departments could use to show how to do certain tasks. The doctors could also use this as a way to let everyone know about new procedures they are performing, seminars they may speak at, changes in their schedules and many more.

Wikis seem like they would be much more conducive to group projects than a blog would be. I have experimented some with Webquests using Wikis and liked the final outcome. The structure of this class's wiki has given me some ideas of how to post whole units that I'd like to explore more.

I am not yet clear on wiki use as my Mac operating system has made it difficult to view the instructional videos, but I can see that wikis could be used for a variety of things: to provide links to class material, pertinent websites or videos, to list homework assignments, to give links to current events that pertain to class material, to assist students who have missed class by outlining material and assignments, as a center for group assignments and activities, as a page for the year's syllabus, to affirm student contributions and output, as a place where students could suggest class room activities or areas of investigation that interest them, to inform parents about my teaching philosophy, goals, and curricula, to recap or summarize material, and to post answers to assignments.

I love wikis! It took a while, but I would love to do a unit, or ongoing comparison between healthy eating habits and exercise levels between classrooms! students could compare their daily exercise logs and food intake (probably for 4th and 5th graders) to see which class is the healthiest, and/or most active!

I am still pretty new at the whole 'blog' and 'wiki' thing! The more I work with it, the more I see the many benefits that could come from incorporating these technologies into my classroom. I think a wiki would be a great way to give students direct access to websites, pictures, instructions, videos, grade scales etc. It is so easy to add links and I think students could easily access them.

I also think a wiki would be a great way to have students complete group work. As a teacher, it would be easy to view who is participating and contributing.

If other teachers in my building were on board, a wiki would also be a great way to share information will colleagues!

I love how wikis seem to provide a more in-depth approach to learning than perhaps a blog might. In my school, we have had some discussions about having students complete assignments at home should we have a snow day and a wiki would be a fabulous way to allow this to happen. In our building our students are expected to complete a variety of projects and a wiki would give the staff a platform in which to post expectations and examples of all projects including oral presentations. Wikis also allow parents and teachers to have one centralized area of information that can be referred to time and time again.

I must admit the blog seemed easier to create than the wiki. I had a little trouble with the wiki. But I believe the more time I spend with it the easier it will become.

I think the wiki would be better used with a collaborative project in the classroom. I like how it allows members of a group to add and edit information. As with the blog, parents would be able to access their student's work.

For those not in education, a wiki could help in planning trips, shopping lists for the holidays, or any big project where others can contribute supplies or help.

Blog Archive

About Me

I am a Continuing Lecturer for the Departments of English and Linguistics and Continuing Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne. A proud US Army Veteran, serving with the US Army Europe during the height of the Cold War, I'm also happily married for over forty years. My wife and I have three grown, well-adjusted children and two precocious grandchildren!